We Burned So Bright

A heart-wrenching standalone novel by the Sunday Times bestselling author of the Cerulean Chronicles and The Bones Beneath My Skin. We Burned So Bright follows and elderly gay couple on an end-of-the-world road trip.

The world is ending in thirty days.

A wandering black hole is approaching Earth, and soon, everything will be gone. For husbands Don and Rodney, forty years of marriage suddenly feels like no time at all.

One last road trip. One final chance to say goodbye.

From the Sunday Times bestselling author of The House in the Cerulean Sea comes a story about what we owe the people we love when time runs out. Don and Rodney are in a race against the clock, driving from Maine to Washington State to settle unfinished business before the sky breaks.

Is it enough to burn bright, even if nothing remains of the ashes?

Along the way, they encounter a world choosing how to spend its final moments―from impromptu weddings and bright bonfires to those simply sharing a final meal. Under a kaleidoscope sky and a cracked moon, Don and Rodney must look back on a lifetime of highs and lows and ask the ultimate question: was our best good enough?

A bittersweet, life-affirming masterpiece about love, legacy, and the beauty of a life well-lived.

Review

An evocative rumination on mortality . . . brittle, elegiac, ironic, lit up with flashes of humour ― Financial Times

It would be no exaggeration to call this bold and unflinching book the ultimate road trip . . . Terrible and beautiful, haunting and humane: a masterpiece in miniature -- Daily Mail

I loved it. It is like being wrapped up in a big gay blanket. Simply perfect -- V. E. Schwab, author of the Shades of Magic series on The House in the Cerulean Sea

A modern fairy-tale about learning your true nature and what you love and will protect. It’s a beautiful book -- Charlaine Harris, author of the Sookie Stackhouse series that inspired HBO's True Blood, on The House in the Cerulean Sea

Full of faith in the goodness of people . . . It broke my heart with its unflinching understanding that grief never goes away, never empties, only settles into the room of your soul like a strange souvenir -- Cassandra Khaw, author of The Library at Hellebore on Under the Whispering Door

A witty, wholesome fantasy that’s likely to cause heart-swelling -- The Washington Post on The House in the Cerulean Sea

TJ Klune is a master storyteller ― The Mary Sue

About the Author

TJ Klune is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling, Lambda Literary Award-winning author of The House in the Cerulean Sea, Under the Whispering Door, In the Lives of Puppets, Somewhere Beyond the Sea, the Green Creek series for adults, the Extraordinaries series for teens and more. Being queer himself, Klune believes it's important – now more than ever – to have accurate, positive queer representation in stories.